Macquarie Group Data Engineer Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: We were first taught the basics of operations involved in working with an investment bank. Based on the workshop we were given a case study with a list of companies to select the one's which are potencial candidates for investments. We were all divided into groups of 5 students.

Round: Test
Experience: The test was basic. Economical aptitude requires prior knowledge of economics concepts. The review topicwas GST bill.
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 41

Round: Stress Interview
Tips: It is important to be aware about the current events and economies.

Skills: Economic Affairs, Financial Economics, Knowledge On Current Affairs
College Name: Thapar University, Patiala

Round: Test
Experience: There were 15 questions from quant’s, 10 questions from data interpretation with 1 mark each and -.5 for wrong answer also there were 2 case studies with 10 marks each with no –ve marks. Total 45 marks question, I did only 9 from quant and 7 from DI total 16 out of 25 questions and didn’t touch case studies. Quanta and DI were very basics level.

In those 16, 1 question was wrong so basically I did 14.5 out of 45, but with a accuracy of 90%. Didn’t expect to get shortlisted but was very tensed and angry upon myself coz it was my level paper. But around 12 mid night shortlist came and I was at 11th position out of 31 students in the list.

There were total around 90 students who appeared for written test. They allowed Mtech and Mca guys not Btech.
Total Questions: 25

Round: TECHNICAL INTERVIEW
Experience: I went there and greeted him. Firstly he told me to introduce myself, later he asked what I like the most. I told analytical thinking and logical reasoning and yeah I relate it with data base.(since I knew they came for Data analyst profile).

He asked me about join, gave me a table and told me to perform all joins. I did that and he asked me about Order by clause and, having clause then asked me normal forms up to bcnf.

Later asked about pl/sql difference b/w sql and pl/sql, what is trigger explain in detail. Some basics questions of DBMS theory asked me about my 2 projects and at the end he gave me a situation where I have a grocery shop outside nit Surathkal, and from last few days/months I realized a downfall in sales, what possible reasons could I find? I gave him 8 reasons within 2/3 mins. He was impressed…

After 1st round out of 31 only 13 were selected and I was there in d list.

Round: TECHNICAL INTERVIEW
Experience: As soon as I entered the room, mam told me “Ooo tum aao aao ”. I smiled because I was the 1st guy during presentation who asked the first question (she made every1 clap for me there) and she remembered my face. And eventually she did study from IIT Kanpur so yes she was able to speak fluent Hindi (plus point for guys like me :p). with her there was a guy he asked me to write code for taking a no and converting it into binary and 1 question from array- very simple later she gave me a table with employee id, order date and order amount. A customer can place max 1 order in 1 day. I had to find the latest transaction of every customer with amount as well. i did it using max function over date and group by with sub query, she asked me about my resume at the end she gave me 7,9,21,63,100 and told me to find the no of numbers between 1 to 50000 which are exactly divisible by all, i did it in 1 min.

but she was smiling, I thought I made some mistake in hurry, then I asked mam m I doing right or wrong (in curiosity as I find very comfortable there) she smiled and said “Chalo bhago ynha se ye interview h ”.I said sorry but yeah she was impressed with my interview so told ki “you will learn all these things very quickly”.

Round: TECHNICAL INTERVIEW
Experience: After 2nd round 9 were selected and I was one of them. It was basically a Managerial round and it scheduled over Skype. I had to introduce myself as well as my family background. Here comes the harder part when he asked me why you have such a poor academic back ground? I was speechless for a moment but I started telling the truth.

I told despite getting 68% marks in my 10th I was the third topper of my class. I got 60.66 % in 12th but yeah there also out of 700 students only 14 got first division. So basically I concluded that in my state board marking is not that much good. He said ok but what happened in graduation(64%) when you studied in Delhi?(what to say now :p) I said sir I did it from IGNOU and you can Google the fact that even less than 5% of student are able to clear the degree in 3 years. Later I explicitly mentioned that I m not blaming my boards but this is the fact which can’t be change.

Now He asked what happened in PG here also you scored only 7.50 CGPA which is less than even standard score of 8(Meri to jaan hi nikal gayi :p). Then I told him that sir u can see my pointer in first semester is very less close to 6.5 but after that I constantly improved myself. He was smiling …..

He asked me about my family background and then I told him how I struggled, I was giving tuition in my grads to continue my education and after grads took a gap of 1 year and cleared all MCA entrance examination and now sitting in front of him.

Later asked about my best qualities….i told him that I can lead group of people very well. I gave example of me being captain of my department cricket team and I was class monitor through 3rd to 12th std and also some stuff regarding my college events. He noted down something .I don’t know what.

I was not sure that I could clear that interview. When the result came they called all 9 students and said that they find is difficult to eliminate 4 names .i was sure that I m out of picture now but fortunately my name was at 2nd position. Wowwwww

Round: HR Interview
Experience: It was telephonic round and just my hobbies and all, he asked me about my poetry writing hobby as well as Hindi Shayaris. I was told to recite 1 …when he listened, he was very impressed…

College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Test
Experience: Study data interpretation (calculator allowed) and pattern puzzles

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Two topics (have been same case studies for past 4 years now): - Mobile app improvement - Making a business decision

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Everything depends only on HR interview
Tips: Make a list of your strengths and an example for each!

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Short, easy and basic questions asked about projects and DS. Pretty chilled

College Name: Sardar Patel Institute of Technology

Round: Test
Experience: The question were not that much difficult. Many apti questions are easy. Technical was very easy for me.
The questions were fully based on java, c and SQL. 7 to 8 questions are from SQL. But all are straight forward questions. Other 2 sections were easy and any student who had a good sort of thinking ability can able to solve those questions.
Tips: Just refer all the basic topics in java, c and sql.
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Questions: 50

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: It was fully based on the final sem project which i was doing.
Since my project is company's employee portal, i was asked about that. They will dig into deep with respect to that project.
Tips: U should be aware of each and everything in your project which you are going to explain them. The question which they use to ask is really unpredictable.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: This is pure technical round where i was asked the questions which is easy but takes time to think. Anyhow, i answered all these questions and get into the next round.
Tips: Logical thinking matters. Though questions look easier, sometimes we co calculate with wrong manner.
So keep calm and think in a broader manner.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Technical round with pure database stuffs. I was asked only few question in this. Since it was straight forward, i answered all the questions.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Confidence really matters. Though i was not that much good in conversing, i spoke with brave and confidently which makes me to became a part of the barclays team.

General Tips: Be confident enough and answer them what you know.
Talking too much as well as taking less is also a problematic.
Skills: Logical thinking, Technical skills ( Especially about database )
College Name: MANIPAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, MANIPAL
Motivation: Credits should goes to my bro who motivates me to apply to this comapny.

Round: Test
Experience: Practice questions on Indiabix.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Operating Systems basics, Dbsa basics

General Tips: 1: Be Confident.
2: Keep Smiling.
3: Do not be Panic.
4: Remember they are here to hire you but not reject you.
5: Do not loose hope.
6: Believe at yourself.
7: Start preparing early.
8: Do demo interviews with your friend.
Skill Tips: Make sure you do a course on object oriented programming
Skills: C, Sql, Java
College Name: BITS PILANI
Motivation: Every body joins a comapny for making a software or earning money. But I was always motivated to MAKE MONEY. I have taken this job because they have very extensive work in Share Market and they have lots of MBA from IIM's, Lots of CAs, CS. Thats why i have choosen Edelweiss. I have rejected epic System USA for this profile.

Round: Test
Experience: The Maths section had questions on basic probability and statistics. Also the Maths section had a higher weight age than the other sections (Questions carrying 3 marks each while other sections had 1 or 2 marks for each question. They were here, offering a quant profile so that justifies the distribution.) The DI/Quant (2 marks each) and English (1 Mark Each) section were similar to CAT. The finance section had questions on Basic Accounting. Anyone who did well in the Maths section could find his name in the shortlist.

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: Possible Lapses: I

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: No CPI cut off and It was open for all departments.

Round: Test
Experience: In muliple choice question Mostly questions were base on maths, probability, c programs, algorithms, Systems. If you are prepared then Questions were not that much tough. Keep strong concepts of Operating systems. For subjective part, Some problems were from maths proofs, some were from probability, some were from algo. We had to write algorithms. etc
Duration: 180 minutes

Round: Problem Statement
Experience: Questions were doable.

Round: Interview
Experience: Everyone was cool, They made me feel comfortable and then started asking questions.
Tips: If you have good rank in online coding competition, do mention it in CV.Most of the students think that GS asks only probability-puzzles. They did not asked me any question on probability or puzzle. Everything they asked was based on Algorithms problems and Operating system. I think it depends on team for which they are hiring. Most important point is don’t lose hope because you have low CPI or you are not good at something. Keep Operating systems fundamental concepts strong.

General Tips: We should balance in Placement and Compititive online coding. Keep in mind Placements and Compititive online coding are some what different things. Keep on improving our mistakes on daily basis. I would strongly suggest you to do introspection daily it will help you to find out your weaknesses and strong points, where we are going wrong etc. There are two thing on which we shoud focus.1. Preparation (I have told everything requered for preparation).2. Get output of all hard work. How to keep our mind on 100% output while the actual exam(placement).For this, I used to go for physical exercise daily in the morning and medidate for 20-30 minutes. Along with exercise i used to do Sudarshan Kriya(Art of Living). Meditation has lot of power :).
Skill Tips: Keep your OS fundamentals strong. To improve codgin skills practice as many problems as you can. Regularly participate in online coding competitions it really helps to solve or approach any new problem. Many time instead of correct answer the approach to solve the problems is very important. How you think, How you approach the problem is checked in interview.
Skills: Coding Skills, Operating Systems , Problem solving skills
College Name: IIT Guwahati
Motivation: The name GS itself enogh for motivation.

Round: Test
Experience: The written test was quite similar to the typical CAT pattern. It contained sections on Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Mathematics.

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: There were 2 interviewers in the first interview, one was a technical guy and the other was from HR. They asked me a few very simple puzzles, a few basic programming questions (swapping the value of two variables etc.), questions related to the development cycle of software products. The HR guy asked stuff like what do you want to achieve in life? Strengths, weaknesses etc.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The third interview was the most important one (and I guess that was the deciding interview). The interviewer started with questions like why finance? Which companies are you sitting for? Then he gave me a case study: